The
pyramid of Niuserre was built by Niuserre, the sixth king of dynasty V. He ruled the surrounding region of Abusir. The pyramid is looked after by archaeologists today, as an extension of the pyramid of Neferirkare, the father of Niuserre. Niuserre was quite a powerful king, enjoying power for a period of 30 years. During that time he started building pyramids or mortuary monuments for his father, mother, brother and himself, as it was the custom in ancient Egypt. Niuserre's pyramid was carved out of beautiful white limestone and was titled with the name “The places of Niuserre are Established”.
The
pyramid of Niuserre was one of the ancient
Egyptian pyramids. However, both its location and the year of origin had kept it out of the bounds of archaeologists for many years. That is why the pyramid is in the greatly deteriorated condition today. The pyramid originally had a height of 51.5 meters with a base of nearly 80 meters. The construction was done in such a manner that people had to enter it from the northern side, go through a trench and finally reach the underground vestibule. The actual burial chamber of Niuserre faced the west. The ceilings of this chamber were also made of huge limestone blocks. The site was first excavated in the 20th century by 3 adventurous archaeologists named Perring, Ludwig Borchardt and Lepsius. However they failed to locate the actual mortuary temple of Niuserre.
